Goblin Slayer Late Season Impressions | Friendly Talks With Karandi

Hello everyone and welcome to our place 🙂

It was time to sit and have a chat with the awesome Karandi again! At this point, we had watched episode 7 of Goblin Slayer and it felt right to do a late season impressions this week! 😀

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– Goblin Slayer Late-Season Impressions –

Hello there Karandi and welcome yet again, to another friendly talk about Goblin Slayer ^^ I think my first question is, what do you think about the evolution it’s getting since last time we talked 😛

Hey Arthifis. I’ve been really looking forward to our next post because it feels like every week I really want to get into this show but we’re holding off until set time periods so I end up just excessively commenting on everyone else’s post. I’m going to be honest in that I’m thinking that compared to the Light Novel the characters and story have been thinned out a bit and watered down, but I kind of get that they are working with time constraints and a different medium. Honestly, I was pretty happy with how they went with this last part even if it didn’t have quite the same impact as reading it.

Still not sure what they are doing with the sequence of events though given things seem to be quite out of order.

What did you think?

Ahahahah I understand what you are saying! 😀 Well, to be honest, I think they are getting better in balancing everything. I can’t know what they are skipping from the light novel since I didn’t see it. However, when it comes to its essence I think they are coming back to show Goblin Slayer as it should be, meaning darker moments, more violence (without passing that thin line that will make people mad), etc.

I would say though, until this last episode I didn’t feel any kind of evolution regarding the character which probably is what you are talking about. I mean, yeah they are changed, you can see that easily, but well… You don’t really see that transformation, it just happened… So, yeah I’m with you!

Moreover, when I discovered that they had skipped a scene that would be extremely important for the high elf character development, it made me a little sad, not gonna lie.

However, I have to say that besides that, animation and music are getting better and better, what do you think?

I haven’t really noticed the music in the last few episodes to be honest. And that’s a shame because in episode one the music had such a solid impact in presenting the character and the world and it just really worked. Since then, the music hasn’t been bad but it has definitely faded more into a background point for me and I really couldn’t say what the music sounded like in episodes 6 and 7. It wasn’t bad or I’d have noticed, but it clearly wasn’t noteworthy either.

I do think the animation, particularly in that fight scene in episode 7 was a really solid effort. Though… I don’t know. The matrix style slow motion goblin slicing with frozen blood drops all just felt excessive. I know I didn’t really find the rape scene in episode 1 to be a particularly pandering scene though others did, but I did find that particular moment of the fight to be almost pandering to an audience that was probably getting a little disconnected from Goblin Slayer because it has been multiple episodes since a real fight and the story has focused on the characters for a bit.

How did you find that scene?

I was actually going to talk about this and ask you the same thing next ahah

Well, to be honest, I liked it! It was cool and looked awesome. But, yes, it was created for the sensation, not because of the story. I would say though that changing for 3D animation from one second to another was a little bit off putting to me. HOWEVER, for me it’s extremely important and interesting to see creators trying new things and it’s awesome to see an Anime such as Goblin Slayer which could just follow the “winning” formula to take risks and try new things.

However, in that episode there is another experience that I don’t think that it worked so well… They used the “looking from an eye of a bird” kind of scene at the end of it so the scene would feel heavier and darker… The question I have for you is… Wasn’t that WAY too long?

I totally agree but this bothered me a lot because at first it was a dramatic and poignant moment. And then it stretched. And it stretched. Then it started reminding me of that moment in Evangelion where Shinji is in the EVA and holding Kaworu (sorry, had to check spelling) and the music is playing and the scene just stretched on and on until you think it just kind of froze but the music is playing.

Turns out though, it wasn’t meant to be like that. From what I’ve picked up reading other posts apparently the end credits were meant to be played over that scene and that would actually have made a lot more sense. I don’t know why the credits weren’t there in the version we saw on Crunchyroll, but that’s what I found out after looking into it. Because, other than that and a few things I personally haven’t liked, this anime has been pretty competently directed, when it isn’t actually just awesome, so I figured there had to be some reason for the canary sequence going on for forever.

Are you kidding? Ahahahah that is just great! Now it makes a lot of sense!!! To be honest, I ended up thinking that there was some kind of thing where they just wanted to finish the song and didn’t know what to include more, visually wise xD

But well, probably it was lack of time, or maybe it was just an error of production where they didn’t notice the error. Well, nevertheless, that will be one of the most strange scenes ever ahah! Is there anything more you want to add?

Not about the direction, though I’ve been wondering about your thoughts on Goblin Slayer as a character. We mentioned earlier that he doesn’t really seem to be getting smooth development in this adaptation, so I’m curious as to how you see him given you haven’t read the source.

Hmmm, that’s a nice question… Well, first of all I think Goblin Slayer is the only character who still got some kind of development and it’s probably the smoother evolution compared to the other characters of the team.

Nevertheless, although you can see subtle changes during the episodes, there are just things that feel off. For example, Goblin Slayer accepting Priestess and High Elf demands of not using some of his tactics to kill the goblins, which brought them to the huge mess they are right now, by the way. I mean, yeah, we can see that he is now more into people and will go away of his way to help others… but… Changing his strategies to kill goblins? I just find this way too strange and I wasn’t able to see a character development that would bring Goblin Slayer to accept that…

What about you, what do you think? Since you read the visual novel, I’m sure you have a different perspective xD

This is where I’m going to have to call Goblin Slayer out on not being such a great adaptation. It isn’t that it isn’t fun, or even that it isn’t strictly following the source. Both of those things are fine. The problem is, that in choosing what to keep in and leave out, some of the things left out are kind of needed for the stuff left in to make sense.

It doesn’t make sense in the anime for Goblin Slayer to agree to Priestess and High Elf Archer. They give him no reason to and Goblin Slayer is incredibly logical in his approach to taking out goblins. There was an actual reason for those restrictions. They point out that they are under a city and you know blowing stuff up and poisoning or setting things on fire would have an actual impact on the city above. It was a really reasonable limit to put on someone who might just focus on killing goblins and forget about the fall out.

What really bothers me is that it was such an easy thing for the anime to either include the reason for the limitations, or not mention it at all. It would have been easy enough for Goblin Slayer to later on mention, ‘oh, I can’t set it on fire because of the city’, and we would have accepted that as a reason for him using a different approach. It just kind of bothers me because as you have pointed out, it doesn’t make sense in the anime. If the anime can’t stand on its own and make sense, it isn’t really a great adaptation.

I’m also kind of wondering how you felt about episode 5 where we shifted the focus from the main party to some of the other adventurers. Did you find that added to the world or was it just a distracting filler for you?

Yeah, I agree with you! I mean, I’ve read this comment over and over around the Internet when it comes to Goblin Slayer “If your read the books you would be prepared”, or “if you read the books you would know this or that”. The truth is, if it’s a good adaptation you just need the books if you want to go to the world with more detail. Story wise should be understandable and make sense. So yeah, the adaptation has to stand on its own, if not, then Goblin Slayer is a good light novel, but a good Anime.

Now episode 5… Let me see if I remember, is that the one which we see that couple inside the sewers?

That’s the one. Where they kill the giant cockroach thing to reclaim the sword.

Yeah, I loved it! I thought I had already commented this with you xD

For me, what really pushes me to Goblin Slayer is the dark environment, the music, the animation, the world building. Meaning, that I’m there because of the world, not so much for the characters or the story.

So, yeah, I think episode 5 was a great episode to show more about everything what happens around the World. Get a sense of how difficult it is for adventurers who are just starting (not all can have the luck of finding a Goblin Slayer like the Priestess). So yeah, it was nice to find the World a little more detailed and explained to us. Basically, a world where people will just make a party when a noob is able to retrieve his sword ahah

But, from what I remember, you said that this episode has picked scenes from all over the place and that their timings are not even equal. So, what did you think about this one?

I only remembered the timing or order was out because you asked me on Twitter about whether the story was part of the main story or not (which is probably where we discussed your thoughts on the episode now that I think about it). I actually loved the episode because I really enjoy the small asides that are strewn throughout the Goblin Slayer books where we do see other characters or stories or just the everyday life.

I think as you said, it is the world that really is powerful in this particular story. The danger is real but so are the friendships, the daily grind, going to festivals… It isn’t just being heroic everyday or everyday being dark and horrible. The characters’ lives are changeable and reflect what it would probably actually be like to live in a world of monsters and adventuring. So, I was really happy to see this episode and it was only later that I realised just how out of sequence some of these events have been.

Is there anything else you want to discuss before we wrap this week up?

Hmm, I don’t think so… I think we talked about everything eheh What about you?

No, I’m good. I’m still wondering where they are going to end the season. My bet would be we’re going to see the climax from book one of the Light Novel because they’ve definitely avoided that whole sequence even though we’re now seeing events from well after it. But, I guess we’ll find out in a few weeks and then we’ll be doing our final thoughts on Goblin Slayer.

Yeah, I’m actually with you. They want to end with a big finale so it gets people interested in a Season 2. That’s what would make sense since the story has more to give than just one season 🙂 And yeap, can’t wait for it, some weeks for now it’s time to go full review eheh! ^.^

Soooo, see you over at your place? 🙂

Oh yes. Dakaichi. The last couple of episodes have been… well I guess we’ll discuss that shortly.

Yeah, I have so many things to ask ahahah

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You read it guys! Now it’s time to go over Karandi’s place and read our conversation regarding Dakaichi! And, let me tell you, it is a GOOD conversation! 😀 But, before that, don’t forget to comment your thoughts in Goblin Slayer down below ^^